Tennis

Last week's Davis Cup ties were rousing good fun, but as usual they flew under fans' radar, renewing calls for change

SO HERE'S the good news: The U.S. pasted Spain last weekend in the quarterfinals of Davis Cup competition. Playing on a slick indoor court—about as antithetical to Spanish sensibilities as an early dinner—James Blake and Andy Roddick won their singles matches in straight sets on Friday and Bob and Mike Bryan sealed the deal in the doubles on Saturday. The bad news: Odds are you're learning about this result for the first time right now.

Tennis has never been more globalized. The top 10 male pros represent eight countries. The ATP circuit threads through dozens of nations on six continents. If ever a sport were well suited for international team competition, this is it. Yet, tennis being tennis, the opportunity is being squandered; Davis Cup teeters on the brink of irrelevance, done in by an absurdly protracted schedule. Consider: The next round of play (U.S. at Sweden, Germany at Russia) won't be held until late September. Huh?

At the start of the week, unassuming Vaughn Taylor was ranked No. 2 on the list of Augustans most likely to win the Masters. By Sunday he had established himself as a bona fide contender as well as a friend indeed

Blake calls Davis Cup "the rocket-science event," referring to the expertise needed to follow the format. (There are seven weeks between the first two rounds, then five months until the next one; 2007 ties are played simultaneously with qualifying rounds for 2008.) Then again, credit Blake—who earned two of the four U.S. points against Spain—for at least dignifying the event with his presence. Neither Roger Federer nor Rafael Nadal, the world's top two players, found Davis Cup worthy of their time last weekend.

Suggestions for improving the event have come from all corners. Most entail adopting concepts from other cups (the World and the Ryder, to name two): for example, holding the event every other year to heighten anticipation. Another idea is to confine the competition to a single stretch of the season, rather than spread it out over the year. Yet another: Ivan Ljubicic, who heads the ATP players' council, claims that 19 of the top 20 players recently signed a document requesting that Davis Cup rounds follow Grand Slam events, ensuring greater consistency in the schedule. "Until a few weeks ago they didn't want to talk about it," Ljubicic says. "Now they're open to discussion."

The they in question is the International Tennis Federation, which governs Davis Cup and has been stunningly resistant to change. As the ITF sees it, the cup format has worked fine for more than 100 years; why tinker now? Conversely, the ATP could help by shifting the dates of some tournaments to accommodate a revised Davis Cup calendar. But it's not volunteering to do so. Welcome to Tennis Politics 101.

The great pity is that Davis Cup is a gem of an event and, even in its current state, has plenty to recommend it. With its overlay of nationalism the team competition makes for gripping theater. The vibe at the U.S.-Spain matches in Winston-Salem, N.C., was altogether different from the atmosphere at regular tournaments. "It's a great event to attend in person, but it has no [traction]," says U.S. captain Pat McEnroe. "That doesn't make sense."

He's right. With a few sensible format changes—say, adopting a Final Four format, with one month of hyped action—the Davis Cup would no longer be half empty.

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Sam's No Sham

Only a year ago Andy Roddick joked that one benefit of anchoring the U.S. Davis Cup team was the right to haze Sam Querrey (right), the squad's new hitting partner. A pledge no more, the 6'6" Querrey, 19, has shot up the ATP rankings, rebutting the assertion that the U.S. no longer mints top tennis talent. Having started the year at No. 130, the lanky Californian is now No. 67. Querrey has relied on a typically American game—big serve, big forehand, the occasional volley—to beat a raft of veteran pros and reach the quarterfinals of two events this year. In his last tournament he lost to the estimable Roger Federer by the more-than-respectable score of 6--4, 6--3. "It's been a good year," says Querrey, who was with the Davis Cup team last week not as a hitting partner but as a backup player. "Once I do beat a top 10 guy, it'll boost my confidence."

A late bloomer, Querrey considered playing college tennis at USC. He was dissuaded by his father's cautionary tale. Coming out of high school, Mike Querrey was a sweet-hitting infielder selected by the Detroit Tigers in the fifth round of the 1979 draft. He enrolled at Arizona instead and never made the majors. Not so his son. Querrey the Younger is, unmistakably, already in the Show.